Government Technology - February 2008 - (Page 43)

productivity improvement will be realized on the order of a 10 percent to 15 percent error and redundancy reduction.” Enforcement Integration The court system in Santa Clara County, where San Jose is located, processes more than 250,000 traffic tickets per year. The courts have been involved with the eCitation system since its inception. The system now is fully integrated for all violations heard in traffic court. Because the system integrates with the courts and other branches of law enforcement, processing these tickets is streamlined and there is no risk of lost paperwork or misinterpretation of what is written. The technology cuts time spent processing citations for the other departments involved. Officers enter the citation on a handheld computer, print a copy of the citation on a mobile printer and issue it to the driver, and then at the end of their shift — or if they drive by a wireless access point — officers upload the citations to the central server, Narayanaswamy said. “This data is processed, updates the current records database, and after a 48hour wait period, they are electronically sent to the Santa Clara court system.” Also, the system’s accuracy reduced fine disputes and other violator protests often heard within the judicial system. Although the traffic courts are the only part of the judicial system currently linked to eCitation, the police department also plans to link eCitation with the Criminal Justice Information Center to let criminal citations be produced in the same manner. San Jose’s system has a number of advanced features, such as capturing fingerprints in the handheld application in the field; capturing photographs for each citation; automatically syncing data from the handheld to the server; and capturing data electronically, not only for citations, but also for collision reports, vehicle reports, field investigations, driver’s license suspension/revocation and driver re-examination. After a driver’s license is scanned, the information is transferred to a small printer mounted inside the officer’s vehicle. A simple electronic signature, similar to those used in retail stores, is all it takes to receive the citation and get a motorist back on his or herway. San Jose is the first California city to use such an advanced system, and more cities within Santa Clara County are being encouraged to adopt the updated technology so police departments can become interlinked. Also, because this application uses California Highway Patrol approved and required forms, Narayanaswamy said 3i Infotech is working with several other California cities to implement this solution in 2008. Funding the System With quicker turnaround and more accurate record keeping, the only thing left in question was SJPD personnel’s response to the switchover. According to Chavez, the force embraced the philosophy that change is good, and every officer is now on board. “As with anything involving change, there are perception and workflow issues that need to be overcome,” Chavez said, “but it has occurred, and the officers who are not computer savvy love it and don’t want to go back [to the old systems].” While the eCitation system has eased the workload of the SJPD and its affiliates, it isn’t flawless. Officers have reported approximately half of California drivers’ licenses cannot be San Jose paid for the eCitation system with the aid of five grants as well as extensive planning. For a year, Lt. Gary Kirby of SJPD’s Research and Development Unit worked on how to fund the system, and he pieced together the income needed by receiving portions of the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant, Justice Assistance Grant, Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund, the Certified Law Enforcement Executive Program, and Urban Area Security Initiative funding. In total, the system’s purchase and implementation cost the city $782,000. Because the system is still so new, monetary return on investment is unknown, but less labor-intensive processing is already proving it’s worth the investment. “For efficiency, that is 3,800 tickets [per year] that no one has to complete a quality-control review or retype all the data. It is extremely efficient.” Lt. Ruben Chavez, eCitation system project manager, San Jose, Calif., Police Department scanned due to age or everyday wear and tear. As drivers’ licenses are renewed, the older versions will be phased out and more cards will be compatible with the system. Wear and tear eventually will happen with newer licenses, so officers can enter, when needed, all the license data by hand. Another eCitation challenge is out-ofstate licenses, which still need to be added into the technology. Though they can’t be scanned, the driver’s license number can be entered into the eCitation system manually. “The number of out-of-state licenses is currently very minimal,” Narayanaswamy said. “It will be added as requirements warrant this addition to the project.” “While it’s too early in the project to estimate the actual savings to San Jose, the goals of the eCitation project were to reduce the error rate, which required a full-time person to conduct quality control, and another to process amendments and dismissal requests,” Narayanaswamy said. “The major staffing changes were the reduction of the staff that had to manually input all the data. This was extremely labor intensive for both the courts and SJPD, and has resulted in the reduction of these tasks. “These tasks will all be eliminated when all officers are entering electronic citations. Already, the project has reduced hours, errors — and improved the efficiency.” 43 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - February 2008

Government Technology - February 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Screen Products Four Questions for... CSI Effect Bad Medicine Making Health Care Personal Cashing In GIS for Less Nabbing Speedsters First Person: Records Management Chatter Box Oregon Data Centers Go Green Products Two Cents Spectrum Up Close Personal Computing signal:noise Government Solutions - Spring 2008 Power Play Double Duty Cleaning House Twice Prepared Smart Move The Path to Success Foundation for Service

Government Technology - February 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.